HAPPY.... They have upped the snow for Indy. 6-10" Can I say how excited I am for that..NOT! I try to keep my calories at 1200. but some days I do not make to 1200. Especially with all this shoveling this winter. I expect to be doing more of it this week into the weekend. Bleh. My ankle is killing me today which I leave it up to the pending snow storm coming either that or my cortizone shot has completely worn off. How are your aches and pains with all your snowy cold weather. Sounds like your knee is giving you enough fits for everyone. Yes I need to up my water intake, however I have been drinking a lot of iced green tea/passionfruit. I like it, but get tired of drinking it. I mailed you a surprise expect it by week's end or so.

CHELLE....glad the weekend went well. I also mailed you a surprise this past Friday, you should get it sometime mid week. Not a big deal either one but just a little fun.

I have the building to myself for a couple of hours. What a bang we got yesterday afternoon! We had been getting rain never thought about it freezing but it was all over every thing. Last night the power went out at work when I was downstairs trying to get the frozen lock off the gate. I could see how to get inside the building and part of the way up the stairs but I had to feel the way around the control room to get to the lanterns. then I had light. Then the phone started to ring. I had a headache when I got home.
The tree's were beautiful on the way in to work. And I found out that I have all wheel drive in my Rav4. I knew I couldn't make it up the incline on my street and started up the other which would have been okay but I had to stop for traffic. I did a turn around, I didn't try to, at the corner and went down to the next street which was flat. My car kept telling me to turn on the slippery when wet button. I did and my drive in was a lot smoother. They told me that was all wheel drive. That was something unexpected.
We still have ice on the trees and power lines.
And by the way my attitude has changed a lot since my last posting.
And we got our W2 forms today.
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Annie
Don't blame you for not going in to work tomorrow. I know every one is getting excited about the new baby. Thank for mentioning the fact that there's something wrong with that picture. My main problem is I'm not male. I've pushed some things on him today that I don't think he's interested in. He found an excuse not to do it. He missed a couple of rounds because of it too. We have two more weather systems coming this week too. I dread it especially if it's ice. Hope C. is feeling better.

Happy
I'm still going to see about retirement but they don't know about it. No harm in checking into things. I still don't have the time to post my food but I will starting at lunch tomorrow, if he goes to lunch.

Michelle
Think I would take the class about the publishing part also. Always good to know what has to be done.

Short post. It has been a long day. We got good news with John's procedures. His bladder and kidneys show no sign of cancer and the checked his prostrate too and it is good to. He does have prostrate stones. The are similar to kidney stones. The urologist said they are nothing to worry about and we will talk about them and some meds for them when we see him in a couple of weeks.

Good Morning, hunkering down for the big snow storm to come in this afternoon and tomorrow, lucky LAURA she will miss this one. Wish I was in the sun and fun too!

SUSIE...so happy to hear DHs procedures came out ok. Never heard of prostrate stones but good to get those taken care of also.

CEEG...Not working from yet and don't plan on it. If they shut down our site, then I am shut down at home too! lol. Glad you had a bit of peace at work. Usually people eventually hang themselves when they do not do their work. Give the arrogant b*tt time a rope!

Going to try to catch up my desk just in case of a closure tomorrow. Then maybe not so hectic when I come back in.

Noting new to report...hello all you lovely ladies. Make it a terrific Tuesday!

Quickie post for me. I have to go into the shop this morning so just breezin' the headlines as I down my coffee. Nothing much going on here - thank goodness. We are chilly but sunny and at least we aren't facing the snow dump that many of you are. Right about now I'd be ready to burn the stuff so my heart goes out to you. Just be careful shoveling the stuff. My sister finally gave up and got a snowblower - got tired of shoveling out the big mess the street plow made at the end of her driveway - several times a day.

Annie - stay warm - maybe you can sneak in a nap. I'd say if the office is closed, you don't have to work from home either. Hope your foot is not hurting you too bad - a warm soak helps, especially if you ice it for a bit too. Sometimes I just freeze a water bottle and then roll my foot on it and it helps.

Susie - if you were thinking cancer, no wonder you guys were freaking out. Glad to hear it's not. I used to think it was just kidney stones but I guess you can get all kinds of stones - bladder, kidney and now prostate. Makes me glad I'm not a guy - just like cats - the males seem to have more issues but then again, we have that female stuff to deal with.

Ceejay - I take it you have a button on the car with extra oomph for bad weather? I was always glad we had the 4Runner with 4 wheel drive when down there except 4 wheel drive doesn't help on ice. Be careful.

Hello to the rest of the chicks, I need to get a move on.

__________________Why torture yourself, when life will do it for you? Be the best you can be today - be mindful with your choices.aa

HAPPY/SUSIE...come to think of it, the kids babysitter when little had liver stones. Those were as painful as kidney stones, which I have had twice and don't care to ever, ever have again. No thank you.

C will be home at 2:30 today. For a couple of reasons. His cold and the snow coming in.

Woke up with a migraine...so took some meds and went back to bed. I'm feeling better now so I'm going to get dressed and go into work for the afternoon.

Sorry I'm so far behind on personals. I hope to catch up tonight. All my free time has been spent working on the video montage for my friend's 50th b'day...actually that's not even true...I've spent all the time working on making a medley of some songs for the audio portion of the video. Hopefully my friend who is throwing the party for his wife likes how it turned out.

Stay safe and warm all my Midwestern friends! Laura picked a good week to go on a cruise.

My Mini Goals:
1) Consume less than 120 grams of carbs, 30 grams of sugar and 1,100 net calories (factoring in exercise) 2) Exercise 6 days per week at least 45 minutes per day
3) Follow the Bariatric surgery eating plan
4) Make the most of each moment

afternoon all,
Back at the airport on the way to Brisbane for a 4 day or rather 3 1/2 day break. Got appointments lined up for Thursday and Saturday and hopefully will get to see some family and friends after those.

Not much to report here. I will try to get to personals later. Having some trouble connecting to the Wi-Fi here and getting onto this site. Rather than lose it, I'll make it awful short.

We are getting slammed with snow, ice, and sleet. I can work from home when it is weather like this but DH can't. With this ice we are hearing, I am telling him to just plan on taking a vacation day. I want us both safe. ICE scares me.

Ceejay: sorry to hear your day was a tough one at work. Between the weather and training the new know-it-all guy, I can imagine you feel like you are at the end of your rope. Tie a knot in it and hang on tight. Tomorrow is another day, or so said Scarlett! (((((Hugs)))).

Michelle, sorry to hear about the headache. Maybe you have been in front of the computer to long with working on the video. Remember to get up and move every once in a while and roll those shoulders.

Happy: were you busy in the shop today? In a earlier post you asked me if they were not checking my DH's blood levels while he was on the blood thinner . He was on one of the new ones where you don't get checked, not like with cumidan.
Yes we were thinking cancer as they told us they were doing the test was to be sure there weren't tumors there that the blood thinners were aggravating. It was nerve racking for sure. But happy for the outcome!

Shad, I am missing you on MFP. I hope your break from work is going well.

Wow! I'm the first one in today, and it's 11 am Pacific time! I hope you all are warm and safe.

Ever since my fantastic weekend at the conference, I've felt very run down. I thought relaxing Monday and Tuesday evenings would help, and it did...but not enough. So I've cleared my evening calendar for the remainder of the week, with the exception of the poker game on Friday evening.

It rained here on Sunday, which was wonderful! And it's supposed to rain tonight and into tomorrow morning...and maybe again on the weekend. We really need the rain...so no one is complaining. I just hope the rain doesn't turn drivers into idiots on the freeways.

An update on my friend who has cancer...he's going to have to take disability retirement which was a bit of a shock to him. But he can't sit for long stretches now and will probably never be able to sit for more than a couple hours at a stretch without lying down, so he can't return to work. He's going to have a needle biopsy next week, and then the surgery to remove his new tumor will be sometime after that.

============================

Happy - You are having a brutal winter! Especially if you still have your first snowfall on the ground. I do not envy my friends (including you lot) in the Midwest. I'm glad I got out when I did. We aren't having the upper 60s temps that Ceejay is having. But it's around upper 30s overnight and into the upper 50s by mid-day. I will most definitely enjoy it for you. I hope you don't run out of propane. As for your comment about me being in a better location to enjoy conferences and good stuff like that, you're right. San Jose/Silicon Valley gets lots of great conferences/events, and the ones we don't get in San Jose, we can get in SF, which is an hour away. Living in WI, it always seemed that the best events went to Chicago and to drive to Downtown Chicago and fight the traffic, as you know, is no fun...and adding unpredictable winter weather...meant I didn't go to Chicago very often...or when I did, it was to the suburbs to see friends. I'm still waffling about the writing workshop. It's a bit pricey.

Shad - What a lovely avatar! Beautiful hills to take your walks and runs. I will take photos of the hills near my work, but they are more brown and sparse with trees...usually this time of year they are green...they just get brown in the summer. Thanks for sharing the photos. I like the architecture of the parliament house and the "beehive" building is interesting! Somes/Matiu Island sounds lovely. Peanut Smurf is adorable! Happy is right, your family does make pretty babies! Your lunch with your niece and the in-laws sounds very nice. Speaking of beehives...when you suggested I get honey at the health food store awhile back, well, I'm still learning my way around San Jose so I don't know where all the shops are...other than downtown where it's impossible to park. But it turns out a co-worker of mine is a beekeeper. He lives in the nearby mountains and the honey he collects from his bees is a Star Thistle blend and is VERY yummy. I don't know if it has all the special properties of the ones you recommended...but I really like it. I purchased two jars and am nearly through my first jar. I use it in my tea 2 or 3 times per day while at work. You're doing a great job with the walking, hiking and running! Good on ya'! I hope you have a wonderful few days at home!

Ceejay - When I got this last cold, I was taking Zicam. They have a crystals pouch that you let dissolve on your tongue (and then don't drink anything for 15 minutes). I swear it helped me get over my cold much faster than usual. I'm glad you were able to enjoy work on Sunday without Mr. Arrogance. I used to have to deal with arrogant "baby geeks" as I call them...usually guys in their early 20s either still in or fresh out of college trying to tell me that the error I'm seeing which plainly states it's in the part of the code they wrote couldn't possibly be anything they did wrong. To which I used to say, "I've been programming since you were in diapers...I think I'm understanding the error message correctly." Sure enough, they fixed their code and everything worked fine. Oh no, sounds like you had an awful night at work with between the freezing rain and the power outage. It's no wonder you had a headache. And to hit icy patches on your way into work! Scary! I'm glad you have all wheel drive in your Rav4.

Annie - Thanks for the pork loin recipe and the recipe book! Do you peel the apple before you cut it up in half inch slices and place the slices in the slits? Yikes, Annie! Was the storm as bad as predicted? 6-10" on top of ICE! Be careful, girlfriend. Once C gets healthy enough to get a flu shot, he should get one. This season's shot has the H1N1 in it, and people are dying of that out here (the H1N1 virus, not the flu shot).

Susie - Good for you on posting both a scale and a non-scale goal! I'm glad your DH's procedures went well and yielded good news.

I sure hope the Midwest and Eastern states have enough propane AND road salt/chemicals to last through the winter. Southeastern WI had a salt shortage one winter and had to use sand...but that doesn't work as well.

Sending all my Worldly friends in the Midwest prayers for safety and warmth. I hope you all are ok.

My Mini Goals:
1) Consume less than 120 grams of carbs, 30 grams of sugar and 1,100 net calories (factoring in exercise) 2) Exercise 6 days per week at least 45 minutes per day
3) Follow the Bariatric surgery eating plan
4) Make the most of each moment

I told the new guy that he had run of the plant today, but as usual stays on his cell phone to long while doing another job. He was doing a back wash procedure today and was texting and wasn't watching his control panel. I happened to look over at the filter and said it's about to run over. It probably did out back. It was about three inches from the top of the filter. He was highly embarrassed. I didn't say anything to him just helped get the filter back under control.
My co-worker L's brother who is a line man was helping our line men with the electric outages, slipped and fell off the truck onto the concrete. He's hurt badly. She called and asked if I could work for her if and when they had do surgery on him to repair the broken collar bone.
I'm going to have to tell B about the filter not closing but I'm not going to say any thing about why. If they watch the camera they will see.
More later

Sorry I didn't get in earlier. Our older cat Meadow had been barfing a bit and at first we didn't think much of it .ie occasional hair ball. She has longer hair and is still kind of skittish so you might get 8 passes at her with a brush if you are lucky. However late in the evening she was really sick - we found a couple of spots and Wednesday morning we were horrified to find a huge clump of blood in the litter box as well as more messes on the floor. We had to catch her and get her to the vet. Nina had problems with too few bacteria in her digestive system and apparently Meadow has too much. It's just the way they are - looked much worse than it was. They gave the poor girl an antibiotics shot, some fluids because she was dehydrated and another shot of some kind. They also clipped her nails as she is not in the mood to let us do it. Once we knew she would be ok, we were able to relax a bit (I had feared for the worst). As they were giving her an IV the fluids build up under the skin (as happens with cats) and she started to develop a large bulge at the neck which resembled a hump back. She already has protruding eyes which DH calls Marty Feldman eyes. With the hump back she was a perfect I-gor (from the movie Young Frankenstein).

She came home and hid under the bed most of the day but finally came out and had a bit of food and a drink. She is relaxing now on a special soft bed I made for her. Her sister caught one blink of the cat carrier and disappeared all the while DH was gone. She sat with her sister a bit, not sure if she was concerned or just wanted to chase her around as usual. $300 vet bill we did not need this month as the insurances are due as well as taxes so it's a short month with large bills. But we are both glad she is ok.

Then I had to fuss around and take care of some bills, question some credit charges and make sure I got 2 refunds that were due me. I watched American Idol for the first time in several seasons and I'm not sure why. That show doesn't hold the appeal to me it once did. Not that I watched it either but reading the press all over the internet I am again disappointed in The Biggest Loser Winner. A girl who was 5 foot 4 or 5 foot 5 lost 150 pounds and dieted down from a size 20 to a size 0 at 105 pounds. I am 5 inches shorter than her and I once weighed 106 pounds and was too skinny so I can't even imagine what she must have looked like. It's not about responsible weight loss, it's about who can pull the most tricks out of their bag to win the $250,000 at the end of the show. They get really big contestants with a lot to lose so someone who has 60 pounds to lose has no chance of staying on the show and now they are back to starvation, dehydration and holding your breath when you get on the scales for maximum loss. It's just wrong in my opinion and downright dangerous. I heard they are thinking of changing things in the next season and I hope they do. And that's all I have to say about that. It's supposed to be bitterly cold tomorrow - a high temp of 0F. I have my yoga class in the morning and then I have to walk to the thrift shop for my afternoon shift. Brrrrr. Not looking forward to that. Thursday is DH's birthday. He is 64. I don't know how he got so old I made a nice bbq rib dinner tonight that he enjoyed - I would not have had enough time to cook it tomorrow. He can have the left overs if he wants something fancy again

Annie - thank you so much for the cookbook. I love your comments and I enjoyed looking at the recipes. Thank you that not all of them are spicy and I WILL be trying a few. What a great idea! I'm sorry you had so much shoveling to do - I heard it was awful. At least you burned enough calories for the week but please take care of your back and your foot - is the cold bothering it much?

Shad - they changed the home page on 3FC - didn't change the content much, just the fonts and some of the graphics. Being naturally suspicious as I am, I too was a little off put when I entered the web address and saw the new page (hacked?) but no, just a spiffed up look. Glad you are back logging on MFG again - I agree - I have had things like the Chinese buffet where I just have to wing it for guestimating calories. Do what you can. Happy homefront - hope you get a lot done in your trip home. Glad to be out of the rain and wind?

Susie - you be careful too with that yucky weather. Trying to clean snow with ice on top is a real bear. That's really scary about DH not having his blood tested - guess that's a good reason why it's better to keep checking things, especially if something could have been detected earlier and alleviated time, expense and WORRY from you. I agree with your thinking on the TOPS meeting - consider it a reprieve and do well this week so that you have a happy weigh in next week.

Ceejay - one of the things I have had to accept in my last job and even here at the thrift shop is that people are not going to be as conscientious as you would be. Yes, they are going to have their heads buried in their cell phones and will be ignoring the work they are getting paid to do. Sometimes there will be problems, most often they will get a finger wag if that. You have to let them suffer their own consequences. It's the "new normal" now and I think it's a sad state of affairs but it's the way it is. Just do your job, keep your tracks covered, teach him the right way and thank God that you will not have to work under him for the next 10 years

Michelle - I'm sorry to hear of your friend's early retirement - sometimes when things like that happen, it's like having to face your issues head on. Hopefully you can find some words of encouragement for him. Glad it's finally raining - ok yes, I am running a loop of "It Never Rains in California" over and over in my head. Glad I like that song. I'm surprised they didn't have more seminars in Milwaukee. I agree with you, I would not like the Chicago seminars because they could be anywhere across the city and suburbs and who wants to drive in that?

I agree with the others, Laura picked a great time to go on vacation. Hope she is having fun.

Time for me to hit the hay. Have a good night all.

__________________Why torture yourself, when life will do it for you? Be the best you can be today - be mindful with your choices.aa